There are many college students that read Studenomics. I don’t want to forget about you guys. There will be some college talk as unfortunately the summer is coming to an end.
As you prepare your list of college dorm room essentials, I’m sure some of you are still looking for a place to live in. I must admit that I lived at home during college and commuted about an hour each way every single day. I was able to save a LOAD OF CASH. I’m talking way more money than I could have ever saved by living on campus or moving away.
As happy I am with my savings, I sometimes regret not moving away. I did my best to not miss a party or stay in on a weekend. The reality is that living at home just can’t compare to having your freedom.
A friend of mine always lived right beside campus in the heart of the city. The rent was much more expensive than it would be outside of town or if they had lived at home. However, I’m a huge supporter of paying for value. There’s lots of value in living close to your college campus.
What are the benefits of living in a central area near campus?
Always close to campus.
My problem was that I was so far away from campus. I couldn’t just pop in to visit a professor or to show up to random study sessions. I needed to plan my appearances at school based on my class and work schedule. Being close to campus means that you can take off to the library when your friends are making too much noise or go home for lunch during a spare.
You can attend events on campus.
There’s so much going around campus that it’s crazy. There’s always something to do. Every single day there’s something going on around campus that you can attend. When you live far away, you really don’t feel like spending two hours commuting in total just to pop in for a small event.
You spend less money on transportation.
Transportation can be a wallet killer. Between taking cabs and the high cost of driving, you can easily lose a pretty penny just on getting around. By living close by campus you can walk everywhere. You might even lose a pound or two during your long sprints when you’re trying to make it to your finals on times.
The social life.
College is really all about getting out there and having some fun. You need to get your grades high and save some money, but you can definitely balance this with a social life. I often visit friends that have gone away for school on the weekends and the social life is amazing when you live with your friends close to campus. Once again if you can’t balance studies and a social life it’s not worth it. If you can hit that perfect balance, you’ll have the time of your life by living close to school.
There are plenty of companies that specialize in city-based apartments close to major universities, such as the city centre flats in Leeds from Morgans City Living. If you haven’t started looking for a place yet, I suggest that you close this window and begin your hunt right now!
I’m just curious: did you live close to your college campus? Are you planning on live close to school?
I passed the time of the actual drive listening to podcasts. I’m not sure what the situation is like in Canada, but in the US, public transportation is limited or non-existent outside of cities, especially in the rural area in which I lived. it was a 30 minute drive just to get to the nearest train that went to NY or Philadelphia. And since my school wasn’t in either of those, there just wasn’t a public transit option.
I did a lot less studying on campus. In my 4th year, I did get into the habit of getting up at 6am every morning and doing homework for an hour before the cafeteria opened. But generally time between classes, I just went back to my dorm and wasted time. But when my room was 45 minutes away, I spent the time between classes actually doing schoolwork.
Lol I often had the habit of going to bed at 6am. Not a good idea!
I live in Toronto and fortunately it was on the bus line. The only problem is that the distance was a killer. The funny thing is that I got to school quicker via subway than driving due to congestion. I would do all my last minute studying on the subway. I don’t know if I would have done well without the subway lol.
Oh I became a podcast junkie. I listened to every single podcast on every single topic.
Even though my commute was 45 minutes one way, I scheduled classes for only two days per week, so I was spending about 3 hours a week on the road. Considering it was a 10 minute walk across campus, I spent more time commuting ON campus then I did off. I really only needed a couple of podcasts to get me through the drive. My favorite was This Week in Science.
That’s cool because my school also allowed me to make my own schedule. The first few years there was an abundance of options so I could make a schedule that allowed me to work full time.